"
Redhead looked sheepishly on Ralph at that word, yet winked at
him also, as if it pleased him to be jeered concerning his wooing;
so that Ralph saw how the land lay, and that the guileful handmaid
was not ill content with that big man. So he smiled kindly
on him and nodded, and went back with Bull into the Tower.
There they sat down all to meat together; and when they
were done with their victual, Bull spake, and said to Ralph:
"Fair King's Son, is this then the last sight of thee? wilt thou
never come over the mountains again?" Said Ralph: "Who knoweth?
I am young yet, and have drunk of the Water of the Well."
Bull grew somewhat pensive and said: "Yea, thou meanest
that thou mayest come back and find me no longer here.
Yet if thou findest but my grave-mound, yet mayhappen thou shalt
come on something said or sung of me, which shall please thee.
For I will tell thee, that thou hast changed my conditions;
how, I wot not."
"Thy word is good," said Ralph, "yet I meant not that; never should
I come to Utterbol if I looked not to find thee living there."
Bull smiled on him as though he loved him, and said:
"This is well spoken; I shall look to see thee before I die."
Then said Ursula: "Lord of Utterbol, this also thou mayst think on, that it
is no further from Utterbol to Upmeads than from Upmeads to Utterbol."
The Lord laughed and said: "Sooth is that; and were but my Bull here,
as I behold you I should be of mind to swear by him to come and see you
at Upmeads ere ten years have worn.
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